Seòmar agus comataidhean

The most recent statistics on the number and percentage of fuel poor households by local authority area were published on 29 January 2016. They relate to the period 2012-14. The next publication of fuel poverty statistics for Scotland is due in December 2016 and will include figures broken down by local authority for the period 2013-15.

The issues raised in the British Infrastructure Group’s report, including structural separation of BT, are currently being considered by Ofcom as part of the Strategic Review of Digital Communications.

The Scottish Government set out its position in response to Ofcom’s recent discussion paper. We believe that the regulatory environment governing BT must stimulate higher service quality and deliver greater transparency and levels of investment. It is our view that strengthened, and more rigorously enforced, functional separation arrangements could deliver those outcomes, without the associated disruption to the market. However, if this is not achievable, then structural separation of Openreach should be considered.

We believe that Ofcom is best placed to assess these options; and look forward to continued engagement with them throughout the strategic review process.

Scottish Government officials have had several discussions with their counterparts in the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive on a range of waste topics including deposit return. I will shortly be writing to ministers in the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive to invite them to discuss these issues further.

I wrote to and discussed the issue with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2015 and will shortly be writing to UK ministers to invite a further discussion of the matter.

In December 2015, ministers commissioned Zero Waste Scotland to explore a number of key issues associated with deposit return systems, following a feasibility study and call for evidence undertaken earlier in the year. Should ministers decide to develop proposals for a deposit return scheme, a cost-benefit assessment would be undertaken.

In December 2015, ministers commissioned Zero Waste Scotland to explore a number of key issues associated with deposit return systems, following a feasibility study and call for evidence undertaken earlier in the year.

I believe carbon capture and storage technology is necessary for a successful global response to climate change. Without Peterhead, I fear we will not see the development of this crucial technology. Following the UK Government's announcement to withdraw £1 billion funding for the carbon capture and storage competition in November 2015, I have written to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to urge her to review options to keep the carbon capture and storage competition projects alive.

On 17 September 2015 I announced to Parliament our intention to work towards a new overarching energy strategy for Scotland. A review of our Electricity Generation Policy Statement, and the impact of recent UK Government policy announcements, will form an essential part of this work.

The energy strategy will seek to optimise the benefits of Scotland’s significant energy resources and expertise, and ensure we have the best suite of policies to address the future challenges of delivering affordable, secure, low-carbon energy supplies.

We propose to align the final strategy to the publication of the third report on policy and proposals, required by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, expected late 2016, recognising the importance of energy decarbonisation in meeting our climate change targets.

The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners’ Rights, Mr Alex Neil, launched the Help to Buy (Scotland): Affordable New Build Scheme and the Help to Buy (Scotland): Smaller Developers Scheme on 21 January 2016. The scheme is now open for builder registration and applications will be accepted from 1 March 2016. Further information on scheme criteria has been published on the Scottish Government website.

We have a strong record on housing matters across all tenures from rental to home ownership. Since 2007 we have encouraged housing supply, maintaining higher build rates in both affordable and private housing than the rest of the UK. We have exceeded our target to deliver 30,000 affordable homes in this Parliament to own or rent and we have invested £305 million to 2015-16 to support the private sector through the Help to Buy (Scotland) shared equity scheme, including the £30 million Help to Buy (Scotland) Small Developments scheme (intended to support further small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) participation and provide more homes across urban, rural and small town Scotland). Our efforts have also helped all buyers by maintaining price inflation of only 1% since 2008 unlike the average increase of 21% in England. The last published data showed that the average household spent just under 10% of their income on housing costs in Scotland and this has remained constant since 2007.

In Scotland we expect the private housing market to operate wherever it can without government intervention. However, we do intervene where there are significant market challenges. We have committed to build a further 50,000 affordable homes during the next parliamentary term, if elected, as well as continue with our current initiatives for low cost home ownership. We recently announced a further £195 million to a successor help to buy scheme which will support both buyers and builders over the next three years.

We also intervene to create conditions to help the private sector to operate effectively working with a range of public and private sector partners to meet the actions in our published Joint Housing Delivery Plan for Scotland. This includes actions such as ongoing work to unblock stalled sites; supporting SME builders; encouraging expansion of supply in the institutional private rented sector as well as broader actions including reviewing the planning system and our action on Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on mobile coverage by technology type at local authority level. As part of its 2015 Connected Nations report, Ofcom – the UK telecoms regulator – published a detailed table of mobile coverage statistics (premises, geographic and road), by technology (2G, 3G and 4G) at local authority level. This data is available at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/research/connected-nations2015/Mobile_Local_Authority_2015.zip.